In six hours of Test cricket, a promoter's dream took shape on the lush grounds of Edgbaston in Birmingham.

If Thursday's play is anything to go by, this Ashes series could be one of the greatest ever played.

With just under four hundred and fifty runs scored, and twelve fallen wickets catered for, the momentum of the game shifted like the twists and bends of a rollercoaster ride.

Steve Waugh won the toss on an excellent looking playing surface, and decided to send the opposition into bat.

To some this may have been a surprising decision, but knowing the way he thinks about the game, I didn't bat an eyelid at his judgment.

His theory would have centered more upon the pressure on the English batsmen, than on just the surface itself.

After the first hour and forty minutes of play, our skipper may have rued his decision as Mike Atherton and Mark Butcher settled into a steady run scoring rhythm.

With chances coming our way though, the feeling in the air was that enough opportunities were being created to auger some sense of confidence at the first break.

Although England were scoring at a lightening five runs an over, the atmosphere, rather than the scoreboard, suggested an even contest.

The leek and potato soup and chicken pasta acted as a spur of energy, as superstar leg spinner Shane Warne, and scary fast bowler 'Dizzy' Gillespie, turned the game back in our favor with outstanding spells of top class bowling.

By tea, Warney had three England scalps, while Dizzy and Glenn McGrath had two each. The boys were buzzing in the changing room at the second break, with openers Michael Slater and Matty Hayden preparing their batting equipment for a long bat in the final session.

When Ashley Giles and Darren Gough left the contest the over after tea, it seemed we were in the box seat for a triumphant first day.

Respectable

This elation was short lived with Alec Stewart and Andy Caddick sharing in a potentially match-changing partnership.

For an hour, you could have mistaken the proceedings in the middle for the final overs of a one-day encounter rather than the first Test match of an Ashes series.

The ball was flying to all parts of the ground, as the blades of Stewart and Caddick did some talking of their own. Rather than dismissing England for a dismal two hundred, they were finally dismissed for a respectable 290.